Until now, natural products of vegetal or animal origin such as concretes, absolutes, balsams or essential oils, for example, have been widely used in the art of perfumery for the manufacture of perfumes. Due to the extensive use of perfumed products, cosmetics for example, in our modern society or to the perfuming of new materials, the consumption of such natural products is constantly increasing. The industry is therefore often confronted with the problems of scarcity or even disappearance of some of these natural products, essential oils in particular. In this respect, one can cite essential oils such as clary sage oil (Salvia sclarea) or sweet marjoram oil (Origanum Majorana), both highly appreciated and extensively used in modern perfumery, especially for "masculine" lines. The production of these rather expensive essential oils eminently depends on the climatic conditions, which often vary from season to season. Thus, the amounts produced may be sometimes drastically reduced and that quality of the oil can vary from one harvest to the other.
It is therefore necessary for the perfume or flavor industry to have available synthetically prepared chemical compounds which are able to reproduce, at least partially, some of the organoleptic effects of essential oils such as those mentioned hereinabove. Such chemical compounds would have the advantages of being prepared in practically unlimited amounts and presenting a constant olfactive or gustative effect.
The object of the present invention is aimed at providing the man in the art with a new class of odoriferous chemical compounds possessing useful organoleptic properties, thereby enabling the man in the art to satisfactorily reproduce, in certain instances, some of the olfactive effects typical of clary sage oil or sweet marjoram oil.
This result was quite surprising in view of the prior art which did not suggest that such tricyclic chemical compounds would develop the olfactive characters discussed hereinabove. On the contrary, the prior art teaches that the compound of formula ##STR2## possesses a musky odor--see DE-OS No. 23 07 627--whereas compounds of formulae ##STR3## are characterized by their typically flowery, fruity and woody odor in the former case, and by their fruity, green and balsamic odor notes in the latter case--see DE-OS Nos. 26 54 268 and 26 42 519, respectively.
The compound of formula ##STR4## finally, is known in the art for its typically aromatic and "medicinal" odor note, reminiscent of that of wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) or liatris--see DE-OS No. 27 37 525.